Medical image technologies using an X-ray diagnosis device, etc. are rapidly progressing. In intervention treatment (intravascular treatment), etc. which is one treatment method for aneurysms, for example, a doctor guides a catheter inserted from the groin, etc. to a lesion part using a guide wire that has been inserted inside the catheter.
Subsequently, from the tip end of the catheter, an embolization substance such as a coil is placed in the aneurysm. By placing the coil therein, blood flow is blocked and, as a result, blood is coagulated within the aneurysm for treatment. In this case, it is possible to visually recognize a blood vessel in an X-ray fluoroscopic image by injecting a contrast agent.
On the other hand, if the contrast agent is continuously injected, there is a problem of putting an excessive load onto the patient. For this, a two-dimensional road map displayed by overlapping an X-ray image captured while once running the contrast agent and a real time X-ray fluoroscopic image, is used.
However, it is necessary to recreate the two-dimensional road map due to bed movement, changes in imaging directions, patient movement, etc. Complicated recreation of the two-dimensional road map is problematic in that it leads to an increase in the examination time as well as an increase in the usage amount of the contrast agent.
In order to solve such a problem, a three-dimensional road map that is a road map image created using a volume rendering image and is displayed and overlapping with a real time fluoroscopic image, is expected to have an effect in reducing the examination time as well as the amount of the contrast agent.
However, in the three-dimensional road map displayed by overlapping a real time fluoroscopic image and a volume rendering image, because devices such as a guide wire, catheter, etc. and human tissue structures such as bones are displayed in an overlapping manner, there is a problem in that device images are very difficult to see.
In order to improve the readability of the image of a device, a technology of extracting device information as a result of a subtraction process of a real time fluoroscopic image and a fluoroscopic mask image and overlapping the device information with a volume rendering image is known. However, in this technology, when an imaging angle is changed, because a coil is also present in a fluoroscopic mask image to be newly regenerated, there is a problem in that a coil that has already been placed therein cannot be displayed.